Monday, March 17, 2014

Kosovo's Kristallnacht Remembered

March 17, 2004. NATO "peackeepers" had occupied the Serbian province of Kosovo for almost five years, following an illegal war. In practice, they had turned over the province to the "Kosovo Liberation Army" - an ethnic Albanian terrorist organization praised in Washington as fighting for "human rights and American values" (Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn, quoted in the Washington Post, April 28, 1999). After the occupation, the KLA split up into multiple organized crime clans.

After claiming that the surviving Serbs - living within barbed-wire enclosures and under NATO armed guard - had caused the drowning deaths of three Albanian children (blood libel), over 50,000 Albanians launched a province-wide pogrom that one NATO official openly compared to Kristallnacht.

Basilica of St. George the Martyr, Prizren (photo: Serbian Orthodox Church)

NATO troops either hid, stepped out of the way, or evacuated the Serbs but let their villages, churches and monasteries burn. In the end, 3,870 Serbs and Roma were permanently driven out of their homes, 935 of which were torched or otherwise destroyed. Six towns and ten villages were "ethnically cleansed." Twelve Serbs were murdered by the mobs, while 15 Albanians were killed when NATO troops finally fired back.

An Albanian desecrates the ruins of the Basilica of St. George, Prizren (photo: SOC)

Adding insult to injury, Western media spun the pogrom as "ethnic clashes," while KLA apologists cited it as argument for rewarding Albanians with independence! Instead of soul-searching, the Empire doubled down. The following year, Bush II committed himself to his predecessor's policy of supporting "Kosovians." NATO stooge Martti Ahtisaari was appointed "mediator" for Kosovo, and in 2007 he proposed independence. It was declared in February 2008, explicitly against the UN mandate authorizing NATO's occupation and the Albanian provisional government. When Serbia complained, the International Court of Justice was muscled into ruling the declaration legal through "judicial sleight of hand."

The ruins of Holy Archangels Monastery, Prizren (photo: SOC)

Not a single person was ever punished for the events of March 2004.

Think of that the next time you hear phrases such as "human rights," or "democracy", or "rule of law," or "sovereignty and territorial integrity." They don't apply to the Serbs. Or to the Empire. They mean whatever those in power say they mean - no more, no less. In their minds, whatever they do is right, and wrong can only be done by someone else. Because they have power.